Objects Database

Miner’s pick

Accession Number

802.2009.1

Object Name

Miner’s pick

Created

29/01/2009

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

29/01/2009

Brief Description

Miner’s pick with long wooden shaft.

Materials

wood, metal

Dimensions

Shaft 82(l) x 10(cir)cms. Head 28(l) cms.

Number Of Objects

1

Colour

brown

Provenance

The stories have become legendary, slater’s hammers, fire pokers, modified wooden ice axes and miner’s picks, all used in the various assaults on the icy gullies of Ben Nevis back in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Pioneer Scottish mountaineer, Bill Murray, famously got a Cambuslang blacksmith to modify a slater’s hammer, likewise Hamish MacInnes took the metal poker from the CIC Hut on Ben Nevis to use as an ice piton.
Quite who, where or when this miner’s pick fits into the historical tapestry we’re not sure, though we do know that founder of our collection, Mick Tighe, found it in the scree of Observatory Gully on Ben Nevis in the 1980’s.
It might well have been used by some early pioneer hacking his way up the gully, or could be a discarded relic of the Summit Observatory construction in the 1880’s.
We might have to clean off a little rust and put some oil on the shaft meanwhile.

Acquisition Date

29/01/2009

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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